Right this minute, wherever and whenever you are, the announcement comes over all radio stations that are functioning (some only have static), internet, local sirens going off, weather radio going off, comes the news that your state capitol and DC and Chicago, NYC, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, San Antonio, San Francisco, Portland MA, and all the other state capitols have been hit with multiple nuclear warheads. There is no place safe to flee to. We have retaliated, and many missiles were knocked down, but too many got thru.

Shortly after the announcements, everything goes dead. Phones are dead. Cell towers not working. Power has gone off. (IRL, you might not even get an announcement. You might only see a blinding flash in the distance and a mushroom cloud if you could still see anything at all after the flash.)

What are you going to do to survive this. Don't cop out and say you do not want to survive it. Assume that you DO want to survive and play fair, please. It is survivable and not the end of the world.

Knowing exactly what you know now. Having exactly the supplies and abilities you have now. What do you do first? Then what? This is a test to see what you actually know. So please don't be shy about speaking up. Many people don't have any idea what to do to survive or have their info mixed up. I was talking to a friend the other day who is a long time prepper and what she was planning to do would have resulted in herself and her family dying.

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." Ps 57:1

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. " Eph 5:15,16

"Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard" 2 Kings 19:6

At this very moment, dh is asleep and ds is at my mother and step-father's house. I'd immediately wake dh, and have him start getting what he can in the car, asap, while inside, I get our pets in their carriers, and near the door for dh to load in the car -- they're going with us no matter what. It may sound hokey, but I thought ahead for the chance of not having room for both pet carriers, so I am working on a crochet beach bag -- it will be perfect for transporting my pet rabbit, pop a small towel in there with her and she's set for me to easily carry over my shoulder. Anyway ... I'd also notify my sister, and see if she was ready to go -- again, at this very moment, my nephew is already with my mother as well as my ds so one less to worry about!

I'd try to fit as much of our preps as we could in our small car, as well as our BOBs.

It's not that long of a drive to my mother and step-father's house, but if we had to walk -- it would be us with the BOBs and pets hoofing it over there.

Once there, I am sort of fuzzy on what I'd do. I am not sure if this is a scenario where we'd seal up the windows/doors -- I'd get input on that, esp.since it's not my home we'd be in.

We're about 2 1/2 hours north of our state capital, so I am thinking we'd be in some sort of danger zone with that. I don't think it would be very long at all before those cities as well as local cities would be converging on the other areas, so I'd also be concerned about security.

I definitely need to think about this one more -- because at the moment, i think my family and I would fare too well at the moment.

Not being funny...we live within 30 miles of a military installation and 100 miles of major cities...seal up our windows and doors and survive in place for as long as we could. Easier to seal up the windows & doors here in this small house where our preps are, than at the homestead house with two levels of windows & doors, and don't think our travel trailer would give us the kind of protection we'd need since we couldn't go outside. You've given Philbe a sort of "kiss the hinny goodbye" scenario...:-(

Edited by Philbe, 08 January 2013 - 10:34 PM.

Matthew 6:11"Give us this day our daily bread...amen."

Phillipians 4:19"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus....amen"

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"...let me walk this out Lord.

I'm staying put for as long as humanly possible. I'm about 3 hours from my capitol so I might have a little time.

First I'd try to call my son and tell him to get here NOW. Don't grab anything but the cat. His BOB is in his car (I hope) and I'd tell him to take a potassium Iodide I put in there. Then I'd grab my BOB and take my first round of Potassium Iodide.

I'd get all the extra pantry food downstairs to the basement. All the water I have (not much) will go down there. Then I'll run upstairs and grab all my meds and what bedding/clothes I can carry in one trip

It's winter now so all exterior doors and windows are closed up. If it was summer that is the next thing I'd do. I'd also turn off the furnace. Then I'd go to the basement and seal up the drains and dryer vent. I have plastic and duct tape down there so that would also go up on the windows. I'd also seal up the basement door until son gets here, then reseal.

I am so unprepared for this! I am making a list of things I need to do now to get ready for this.

1. Have another serious talk with son

2. Prepare a better and more comfortable place in the basement to stay

Luma there are youtubes on radiation fallout maps for the US. What you can do is see if you are in an immediate fall out area. If so , you would stay right where you are and there are ways to do a temp fallout shelter but you have to be ready to stay 2 weeks usually in one if you are going to one, or make one. My little bathroom , if I saw a door in half and put that over my shower area and line outside the walls and doorway an area for exiting and for portpotty bucket because I dont want to stuff up the toilet if the water goes off in the town. The walls can be sheltered with stacks of books or metal two inches thick, above too, or earth, like sandbags. food in containers can be eaten.

Take potassium iodide. We have threads on all this stuff, its worth looking at for sure to get ideas. There are dosage info sheets too for people and pets per body weight. Its cheap if you buy it by the jar. Vitacost carries it and so does amazon. The packets are good for BOBs.

Ok, just got the word here ...... as I said to Luma, I might be at risk for the NYC or Chicago attacks mostly, depending on storm fronts and winds and such. ( any cities along Great Lakes, weather tends to come right up my alley here from there). I am in a small town so no immediate danger, but worried about water and go fill all my spare containers and covered pans and set them in the oven or cap them. I don't have any place to store ply wood and take the bedroom door and cut a third of the length off with my handsaw. ( at this point I think its not important that I tick off my land lady.) With bombs hitting Dallas and Los Angeles

I just probably lost my son and his wife and her family in Houston and my dad and some other relatives and my neices, so my land lady can just stick it if she lives through this and finds out how I rigged my shelter inside. I use my handdrill , my step ladder and the screws I already have up on top of the shower as it has a wood edge on top and mount the board over it. I get piles of books and fill it all in , It goes the length of the room to the door. (I said it was a small bathroom), I get more books,( novels, nothing educational or skills types) and stack them out on the hall way wall and put a note on them saying please leave them in place, hoping for the best. I give a good kick to the neighbors door. I dont have time to get the landlady to come in and unlock a chintzy door........ and layer up books and bags of clothes to add some protection ( yea right.......sure...but its better than nothing but wall board )

I put my bed upright on the other wall in my living room and brace it with furniture. Most of its covered. I cannot do anything about the outer wall or the rest of the living room. I do have my jar of potassium iodide. I pray the fallout misses us mostly, or is wearing down fast enough as it travels.

I get two weeks worth of ready to eat food and my portabucket toilet and its gear and my water supply which I put just inside the kitchen. I get a couple changes of clothes and hang them inside my bathroom door on the hooks there and put a pair of shoes in there too. I put two liters of water in the bathroom for the next couple days usage.

I get my crank radio out of its faraday box and crank it up. It does light up so I know it works even if I cannot immediately get a station. Wait, there is a station on , Montreal and Quebec is broadcasting and relaying messages. I set that in the bathroom after clearing the sink counter and get my small cot mattress and pillows and my favorite novels, a notebook and several pencils and pens. I get my first aid kit out and set it on the back of the toilet. The French dictionary and phrase book. My herbal book. My cat. I set up her cat box by the toilet bucket and get her a bag of food and some water bottles for her bowl too. I am not sure if city water is affected but have enough to wait out two weeks or so of fallout stored. I get my cell phone and kindle and laptop and put them in the bathroom in the faraday box I made for them under the sink. They may yet still work since the bombs were ground level explosions and I live a few hundred miles away from the cities bombed so far. Later for those though.

I do a quick sponge bath and put on clean clothes and neatly comb my hair and get my cat inside the shelter area and book in the entrance way area ( I really don't have enough books for this so I do the majority of it and hang layers of blankets ). I set up a vent that is covered for airflow into my apartment and tape window with ducttape inside so its very difficult to lift up from the outside, and would make alot of noise I would hear in case of looters or rescue.

I fold and layer blankets in the shower as its a place I can sit, after putting up the shower curtain carefully as I may find it useful later. I have no light in there but can use the crank radio flash light anytime i want light. I have tea lights, an oil lamp and plumbers candles but its a small bathroom and I dont want to use up oxygen if I can help it.

I settle with the cat on the folded blankets and pillows I gathered inside the bathroom and listen to the shocking reports. I have my sterno kit for tea and coffee, which is set up in the ready to eat bin I placed in the bathroom. I let the cat get comfortable and give her a favorite type of mousie toy to play with and read the directions on the jar of potassium iodide and cut up a tablet for my cat to use over the next several days and take one for now. One in several hours, as a precaution.

And I pray and get out my notebook. Its time to think through what i have in my place if the lights do not come back on.

This is worse size than a fallout shelter or cellar , folks but its only me and my cat . I kept my favorite books and the bible too and notebook for writing in, my kindle if the power comes back on as I dont expect cable to resume or modems to work now. Too many transfer stations overall just got wiped or damaged. But local power might resume. I use a bread pan to set some candle sticks in on the back of the toilet and put one on the sink and settle in with my notebook.

Honestly I have alot of books but not that many . I might be toast but maybe not! Most of those i love are though.

My younger son is out visiting in a safe county. I hope he stays a while.

I'd call my older son into the hallway, if I need to, since his bedroom window faces town and he might get a flash burn if the angles are exactly wrong. If the house is undamaged after the blast wave, get my son to set a book case at the east end of the hall, and fill it. Push the two tall cabinet style book cases that are in the hall to the other wall, so the books face the wall, then tip it over so the top faces the original wall. This puts six or more inches of thickly packed paper between the hall floor and the ceiling and south wall. The slots between the tops of the books and the bottoms of the next shelf up need to be filled with more books. Meanwhile, I'll be grabbing the filter masks, running a tub full of water, capturing the cats as best I can and shutting them up somewhere, like the laundry room, throwing the food bag in with them, and blocking off the doggy door. I'll also make a brief attempt to get the young pullet (who is set to lay full-out this spring) off her perch and into...maybe the back bathroom. There's already a little protection to the west and to the north (including a tub full of water). Try to get my kitten and the calmest of the older cats into cages to join me and my son in the expeditious shelter in the hall. Pile rice bags and flourbags on top of the tilted books and other food around the shelter.

Then bunk down in there and wait until something happens, tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night at the very least, coming out only to meet ambulatory threats and visit the bathroom and add to the mass around the hall's sheltered space.

Then make brief forays out to feed and water the critters and build a Kearney meter to see what the situation is.

Unless the cats in the laundry room die, indicating dangerous levels of radiation, I'd like to stay put until I can reach my younger son. Once I can make contact with him, we'll probably load the truck with food, clothes, tools, pets, books, supplies, and potted fruit trees/vines, and head for the boys' father's rather remote home, by some roundabout route that I should have checked out beforehand. That's if the truck runs. I think it has an electronic ignition instead of a centrifugal one.

If the truck doesn't run and the house stands, I'd probably stay put until things settle some. I don't want to be stuck in a refugee camp. Staying put will require rearranging the house (especially bookcases) with an eye to defense, but I still want to sleep in as sheltered a place as we can get.

Think underground or shelter made with two feet of soil over and around shelter. US ARMY manuals give instructions. These are useful for small livestock stalls as well in regular life....... there may be threads on nuclear shelter building . A root cellar with an earthen covered roof or a cave with a bermed up entrance are suitable. Or two inch thick metal plate. Minimum one foot of thickness , which is what I would do with the books. Two to three foot thick books would be better. I do not know if gallons of water stacked like the books would really work. I have heard this method disputed.

Radiation goes right through walls and roofs and floors. Just going to the basement does not really work.

Ok, so I cheated and gave ya all a hint.

One of the things you don't do is go out and drive in it except to get away from blast area immediately. after that, its the fall out that gets ya. Now, what does that jog in your minds with what is to hand? The other thing is to shower down as soon as you are out of blast zones , buckets of water poured over you work too. Decontaminate and change clothes. I cleaned up because I knew I was going to be two weeks at least without a shower probably in a small place. I am not in an immediate attack zone of the first degree. I am within 2oo miles of one though and 100 miles of secondary up in Canada ...... and one closer but east of me. It depends on weather patterns for me. For others it is more immediate.

If i had a yard I would dig a shelter out of my soil!

Nobody mentioned opsec, but yes what means I have would be included and at hand to protect what I have in the rest of my place.

Um. I'm dead. I'm smack in the middle of three military bases in an area you said was hit. We don't even attempt to prep for this scenario because of it.

I do keep plastic to seal everything up in case of the volcano ash, but I know that's not enough. As this is a single wide, I have no inner room to move us all too, and no underground safe place. I keep disposable litter trays for the cats in our room ready to go, potty pads for the dogs so they don't have to go outside. We're toast.

CGA, this is not really realistic for us to prep for this particular situation. I can stand on the outskirts of my small city and see the tallest buildings in the downtown area of my state capitol...there is a major military base a 30 minute drive in the other direction. San Francisco is 90 minutes away. Multiple bombs? I would just hope we'd be gone quickly. My dh thinks we could head to some of the buildings that are on the university campus...there are a couple that actually look like bunkers....I think the 30,000 students would be thinking the same thing. I have seen the fallout directions on of those maps....there's really nowhere for us to run. This scenario used to give me nightmares. I might be sticking my head in the sand but I choose not to actively prep for this particular type of scenario.

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

I have a plan that involves a cave on our property, the BOB and 72 hours kit, food, water and camping gear to round out a month bug out, and a Kawasaki Mule to transport us there. It takes 30 min. maximum to set up there and get everyone home and inside. We are about 1 hour of fallout wave time from the nearest likely target.

My two weakest spots are 1. trying to catch a few chickens before we go - they never cooperate with any of my plans,

and 2. dh would be at work about 30 minutes away (I can drive it in 20 min. and I expect he coiuld also, given the proper motivation)

If I had any prior warning, such as significantl;y increasing tensions and major threats or warnings, I would go down and pre-open the shelter. I would take the extra food, water, and other supplies down early, just in case.

I am in the triangle between the I35 corridor (Dallas/Austin/San Antonio) and I10 (San Antonio/Houston) Closest target about 50 miles. I don't intend to give up and let myself die a horrible, painful death from radiation.

I cannot dig here because I am in a low area and water will run down hill and into any hole I dug, bringing radiation with it. I live in a single wide. I do not have a shelter.

My first plan is to recruit neighbors to help build us all a shelter in their yard. They have more hands to help and equipment and live on a hill. However, they may not be home or get home in time. So my second plan:

Roll all the empty barrels to a high spot near the house. Use the shovel to level it a bit without losing too much height advantage. It is just a sand pile. Set up the first barrel and start it filling with water while I bring the next barrels up. Once I have the barrels set up I will bring my sand bags from the barn and start filling them, stacking them around the barrels since there will be less shielding between the barrels as I don't have enough barrels for a tight pack. After putting the lids on the barrels, I'll lay tposts across the tops (I have a lot of tposts available stacked near the barn, which is in a low area) Then a couple sheets of plywood over the tposts then I will half fill sandbags and stack as deep as I can over the plywood. I'll cover the entire thing with a heavy tarp, using sandbags to hold it down. Inside I will cover the floor with a tarp. Sandbags will be used to make a short tunnel entrance with a 90* bend. I'll have to cover it with fencing to keep animals out.

I'll drag out the mattress that is covered in heavy vinyl and put it inside. I will bring out my folding chair. Then the BOBs will be put in. A couple of 5 gal buckets with lids for the potty. As many jars of meals as I can haul will be brought out and all my jerry cans will be filled. A couple of the cans will be brought in and the rest tucked under the tarp outside. I'll check to make sure the cistern lid is on tight. I keep it filled. I'll bring out as much bedding as we need and put that in. I'll have to grab a couple packs of diapers from under daughter's bed too.

If I had a good barn I would put the animals in it, but my 'barn' is only a raised shed and not large enough and I wouldn't be able to go down to feed and water them. Unfortunately that means I would lose all my animals. I couldn't even let the dogs come in the shelter because I would have no way to deal with their waste and couldn't let them go out and in without contaminating the shelter. I will also take firearms and ammo into the shelter.

We would have to be in there for two weeks full time. However, once the two buckets for waste are full and the jerry cans of water empty, I could make a very brief trip out to empty the buckets (I would carry them away from the shelter and dump them on the ground downhill.) and grab another can of water. I would move as quickly as possible. Then put the clothes I had on into a trash bag and set it around the bend in the entrance to use for the next trip out. They shouldn't be very contaminated after one trip and the particles on them will continue to decay away from where our bodies are. It would take several days to fill the buckets and empty one can of water and by then the radioactivity levels would have dropped considerably. If I needed to, I could dash into the house for more supplies at that point. I'm not sure how much I could put in the shelter before my back spasmed me to my knees especially after dealing with sand bags.

Once I get moved I intend to build a permanent root cellar/fallout/storm shelter.

Even if you are close to a target, you can survive if you know what to do and get with it right away.

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." Ps 57:1

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. " Eph 5:15,16

"Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard" 2 Kings 19:6

Here is where you can download THE book. I suggest each of you at least download and print out a copy. (I found the second link is easier to read.) Amazon also carries it. http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/0939002027

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." Ps 57:1

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. " Eph 5:15,16

"Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard" 2 Kings 19:6

If you will READ the info provided and think your way thru this, you can survive and be healthy, even if you are near ground zero, provided that you do not die in the initial blast or receive such severe burns that you cannot survive them.

Don't throw your lives away.

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." Ps 57:1

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. " Eph 5:15,16

"Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard" 2 Kings 19:6

I saw this last night just as I was about to call it a night. So....I'm going to respond like it is last night, without reading any of your thoughts.

I was just about to shut off the kindle and go to sleep when I saw something in the shout box that said nuclear attack. I quickly grabbed the remote and turned on the tv just as it went to fuzz. Immediately woke DH who ran to the window and saw a flash to the east. He didn't see anything else so decided to quickly run and grab the 20 # lp tanks off the camper and bring them in. Meanwhile I woke the kids and told 7 y.o. to grab all this bedding and head to the basement. Woke 15 y.o and told her to do the same and take her matress too. I grabbed a laundry basket and loaded up some food from the fridge, set that by the basement door and went back for my bedding. By now hubby is heading down stairs with 2 of the tanks. I ask him what is going on. He says, don't know but the sky doesn't look good.

Hubby heads back up with the air compressor....huh? And a couple minutes later with the 20 # tank off the grill. He tells the kids to stay downstairs now. 17 wanders out of her room which is already downstairs and scowls at us. No time to talk. As we are heading back up we hear the door slam. Dd and hubby and my mom and Dad have come in the house covered with dust. Hubby fires up the air compressor and blows them and their belongs clear of dust. Hubby wonders where is mom is and debates on running up to work and grabbing his haz-mat suit and going looking for her. I convince him that would be bad as he would get cornered at work as this is a disaster. Just then his mom pulls in and wants help bringing her stuff in. He tells her NO GET IN HERE. She comes in and starts to say something and gets a face full of air from the air compressor. We all head downstairs hoping we can stay put for a few weeks. We have food and water (not enough water for three weeks).

Now we all start to talk at once. What is going on? The kids want to know. They think it is the EMP we were just talking about that afternoon and can't figure why we need to be in the basement. DD17 just wants to go back to bed. I help the kids make up their beds in DD17's room. Married DD comes to help. I asked her what she brought. She said just the propare cookstove and all our bedding like you said when we were talking about EMP's. They had been up watching TV as always! Her hubby is worried about his family, but assumed they went to his Grandma's house just down the road. DD and Hubby got to our house about 12 minutes from the TV break-in. Record time considering they needed to get on shoes and coats and grab a couple things. And they are typically 15 minutes away. Wonder why it took M-I-L so long to get here.

I wished I had printed out some info about nuclear attacks....I wonder if being in the basement will be enough to keep from being contaminated. I know we have enough food. I think our propane heater will hold out downstairs where it usually is always 55 degrees year round if we use it sparingly. We are at least 3 hours from any of the cities mentioned so I figure we had at least 10 minutes before getting dusted. Could be wrong though.

IRL I need to get to school with the kids. I'll be anxious to read this thread later.

Um. I'm dead. I'm smack in the middle of three military bases in an area you said was hit. We don't even attempt to prep for this scenario because of it.

I do keep plastic to seal everything up in case of the volcano ash, but I know that's not enough. As this is a single wide, I have no inner room to move us all too, and no underground safe place. I keep disposable litter trays for the cats in our room ready to go, potty pads for the dogs so they don't have to go outside. We're toast.

Would you have access to bomb shelters at the base?

Love the idea of the kitty litter toilet, never heard of that one, good idea.